OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
Virtually increasing the measurement frequency of LIDAR sensor utilizing a single RGB camera
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2023
Year: 2023

The frame rates of most 3D LIDAR sensors used in intelligent vehicles are substantially lower than current cameras installed in the same vehicle. This research suggests using a mono camera to virtually enhance the frame rate of LIDARs, allowing the more frequent monitoring of dynamic objects in the surroundings that move quickly. As a first step, dynamic object candidates are identified and tracked in the camera frames. Following that, the LIDAR measurement points of these items are found by clustering in the frustums of 2D bounding boxes. Projecting these to the camera and tracking them to the next camera frame can be used to create 3D-2D correspondences between different timesteps. These correspondences between the last LIDAR frame and the actual camera frame are used to solve the PnP (Perspective-n-Point) problem. Finally, the estimated transformations are applied to the previously measured points to generate virtual measurements. With the proposed estimation, if the ego movement is known, not just static object position can be determined at timesteps where camera measurement is available, but positions of dynamic objects as well. We achieve state-of-the-art performance on large public datasets in terms of accuracy and similarity to real measurements.
CEN-HDR: Computationally Efficient neural Network for real-time High Dynamic Range imaging
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2023
Year: 2023

High dynamic range (HDR) imaging is still a challenging task in modern digital photography. Recent research proposes solutions that provide high-quality acquisition but at the cost of a very large number of operations and a slow inference time that prevent the implementation of these solutions on lightweight real-time systems. In this paper, we propose CEN-HDR, a new computationally efficient neural network by providing a novel architecture based on a light attention mechanism and sub-pixel convolution operations for real-time HDR imaging. We also provide an efficient training scheme by applying network compression using knowledge distillation. We performed extensive qualitative and quantitative comparisons to show that our approach produces competitive results in image quality while being faster than state-of-the-art solutions, allowing it to be practically deployed under real-time constraints. Experimental results show our method obtains a score of 43.04 mu-PSNR on the Kalantari2017 dataset with a framerate of 33 FPS using a Macbook M1 NPU.
Hierarchical Motion Planning under Probabilistic Temporal Tasks and Safe-Return Constraints
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2023
Year: 2023

Safety is crucial for robotic missions within an uncertain environment. Common safety requirements such as collision avoidance are only state-dependent, which can be restrictive for complex missions. In this work, we address a more general formulation as safe-return constraints, which require the existence of a return-policy to drive the system back to a set of safe states with high probability. The robot motion is modeled as a Markov Decision Process (MDP) with probabilistic labels, which can be highly non-ergodic. The robotic task is specified as Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) formulas over these labels, such as surveillance and transportation. We first provide theoretical guarantees on the re-formulation of such safe-return constraints, and a baseline solution based on computing two complete product automata. Furthermore, to tackle the computational complexity, we propose a hierarchical planning algorithm that combines the feature-based symbolic and temporal abstraction with constrained optimization. It synthesizes simultaneously two dependent motion policies: the outbound policy minimizes the overall cost of satisfying the task with a high probability, while the return policy ensures the safe-return constraints. The problem formulation is versatile regarding the robot model, task specifications and safety constraints. The proposed hierarchical algorithm is more efficient and can solve much larger problems than the baseline solution, with only a slight loss of optimality. Numerical validations include simulations and hardware experiments of a search-and-rescue mission and a planetary exploration mission over various system sizes.
Count-min sketch with variable number of hash functions: an experimental study
Venue: arXiv cs.DS 2023
Year: 2023

Conservative Count-Min, an improved version of Count-Min sketch [Cormode, Muthukrishnan 2005], is an online-maintained hashing-based data structure summarizing element frequency information without storing elements themselves. Although several works attempted to analyze the error that can be made by Count-Min, the behavior of this data structure remains poorly understood. In [Fusy, Kucherov 2022], we demonstrated that under the uniform distribution of input elements, the error of conservative Count-Min follows two distinct regimes depending on its load factor. In this work, we provide a series of experimental results providing new insights into the behavior of conservative Count-Min. Our contributions can be seen as twofold. On one hand, we provide a detailed experimental analysis of the behavior of Count-Min sketch in different regimes and under several representative probability distributions of input elements. On the other hand, we demonstrate improvements that can be made by assigning a variable number of hash functions to different elements. This includes, in particular, reduced space of the data structure while still supporting a small error.
Transfer Functions of Proteinoid Microspheres
Venue: arXiv cs.ET 2023
Year: 2023

Proteinoids, or thermal proteins, are inorganic entities formed by heating amino acids to their melting point and commencing polymerisation to form polymeric chains. Typically, their diameters range from 10 to 100 micron. Some amino acids incorporated into proteinoid chains are more hydrophobic than others, leading proteinoids to cluster together when they are present in aqueous solutions at specific concentrations, allowing them to grow into microspheres. The peculiar structure of proteinoids composed of linked amino acids endows them with unique properties, including action-potential like spiking of electrical potential. These unique properties make ensembles of proteinoid microspheres a promising substrate for designing future artificial brains and unconventional computing devices. To evaluate a potential of proteinoid microspheres for unconventional electronic devices we measure and analyse the data-transfer capacities of proteinoid microspheres. In experimental laboratory conditions we demonstrate that the transfer function of proteinoids microspheres is a nontrivial phenomenon, which might be due to the wide range of proteinoid shapes, sizes, and structures.
Reinforcement Learning for Protocol Synthesis in Resource-Constrained Wireless Sensor and IoT Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2023
Year: 2023

This article explores the concepts of online protocol synthesis using Reinforcement Learning (RL). The study is performed in the context of sensor and IoT networks with ultra low complexity wireless transceivers. The paper introduces the use of RL and Multi Armed Bandit (MAB), a specific type of RL, for Medium Access Control (MAC) under different network and traffic conditions. It then introduces a novel learning based protocol synthesis framework that addresses specific difficulties and limitations in medium access for both random access and time slotted networks. The mechanism does not rely on carrier sensing, network time-synchronization, collision detection, and other low level complex operations, thus making it ideal for ultra simple transceiver hardware used in resource constrained sensor and IoT networks. Additionally, the ability of independent protocol learning by the nodes makes the system robust and adaptive to the changes in network and traffic conditions. It is shown that the nodes can be trained to learn to avoid collisions, and to achieve network throughputs that are comparable to ALOHA based access protocols in sensor and IoT networks with simplest transceiver hardware. It is also shown that using RL, it is feasible to synthesize access protocols that can sustain network throughput at high traffic loads, which is not feasible in the ALOHA-based systems. The ability of the system to provide throughput fairness under network and traffic heterogeneities are also experimentally demonstrated.
Multi-armed Bandit Learning for TDMA Transmission Slot Scheduling and Defragmentation for Improved Bandwidth Usage
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2023
Year: 2023

This paper proposes a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) MAC slot allocation protocol with efficient bandwidth usage in wireless sensor networks and Internet of Things (IoTs). The developed protocol has two primary components: a Multi-Armed Bandits (MAB)-based slot allocation mechanism for collision free transmission, and a Decentralized Defragmented Slot Backshift (DDSB) operation for improving bandwidth usage efficiency. The proposed framework is decentralized in that each node finds its transmission schedule independently without the control of any centralized arbitrator. The developed mechanism is suitable for networks with or without time synchronization, thus, making it suitable for low-complexity wireless transceivers for wireless sensor and IoT nodes. This framework is able to manage the trade-off between learning convergence time and bandwidth. In addition, it allows the nodes to adapt to topological changes while maintaining efficient bandwidth usage. The developed logic is tested for both fully-connected and arbitrary mesh networks with extensive simulation experiments. It is shown how the nodes can learn to select collision-free transmission slots using MAB. Moreover, the nodes learn to self-adjust their transmission schedules using a novel DDSB framework in order to reduce bandwidth usage.
Intelligent Proactive Fault Tolerance at the Edge through Resource Usage Prediction
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2023
Year: 2023

The proliferation of demanding applications and edge computing establishes the need for an efficient management of the underlying computing infrastructures, urging the providers to rethink their operational methods. In this paper, we propose an Intelligent Proactive Fault Tolerance (IPFT) method that leverages the edge resource usage predictions through Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN). More specifically, we focus on the process-faults, which are related with the inability of the infrastructure to provide Quality of Service (QoS) in acceptable ranges due to the lack of processing power. In order to tackle this challenge we propose a composite deep learning architecture that predicts the resource usage metrics of the edge nodes and triggers proactive node replications and task migration. Taking also into consideration that the edge computing infrastructure is also highly dynamic and heterogeneous, we propose an innovative Hybrid Bayesian Evolution Strategy (HBES) algorithm for automated adaptation of the resource usage models. The proposed resource usage prediction mechanism has been experimentally evaluated and compared with other state of the art methods with significant improvements in terms of Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) and Mean Absolute Error (MAE). Additionally, the IPFT mechanism that leverages the resource usage predictions has been evaluated in an extensive simulation in CloudSim Plus and the results show significant improvement compared to the reactive fault tolerance method in terms of reliability and maintainability.
Computing a Best Response against a Maximum Disruption Attack
Venue: arXiv cs.GT 2023
Year: 2023

Inspired by scenarios where the strategic network design and defense or immunisation are of the central importance, Goyal et al. [3] defined a new Network Formation Game with Attack and Immunisation. The authors showed that despite the presence of attacks, the game has high social welfare properties and even though the equilibrium networks can contain cycles, the number of edges is strongly bounded. Subsequently, Friedrich et al. [10] provided a polynomial time algorithm for computing a best response strategy for the maximum carnage adversary which tries to kill as many nodes as possible, and for the random attack adversary, but they left open the problem for the case of maximum disruption adversary. This adversary attacks the vulnerable region that minimises the post-attack social welfare. In this paper we address our efforts to this question. We can show that computing a best response strategy given a player u and the strategies of all players but u, is polynomial time solvable when the initial network resulting from the given strategies is connected. Our algorithm is based on a dynamic programming and has some reminiscence to the knapsack-problem, although is considerably more complex and involved.
Exploring the Cookieverse: A Multi-Perspective Analysis of Web Cookies
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2023
Year: 2023

Web cookies have been the subject of many research studies over the last few years. However, most existing research does not consider multiple crucial perspectives that can influence the cookie landscape, such as the client's location, the impact of cookie banner interaction, and from which operating system a website is being visited. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive measurement study to analyze the cookie landscape for Tranco top-10k websites from different geographic locations and analyze multiple different perspectives. One important factor which influences cookies is the use of cookie banners. We develop a tool, BannerClick, to automatically detect, accept, and reject cookie banners with an accuracy of 99%, 97%, and 87%, respectively. We find banners to be 56% more prevalent when visiting websites from within the EU region. Moreover, we analyze the effect of banner interaction on different types of cookies (i.e., first-party, third-party, and tracking). For instance, we observe that websites send, on average, 5.5x more third-party cookies after clicking ``accept'', underlining that it is critical to interact with banners when performing Web measurements. Additionally, we analyze statistical consistency, evaluate the widespread deployment of consent management platforms, compare landing to inner pages, and assess the impact of visiting a website on a desktop compared to a mobile phone. Our study highlights that all of these factors substantially impact the cookie landscape, and thus a multi-perspective approach should be taken when performing Web measurement studies.
Composable Ledgers for Distributed Synchronic Web Archiving
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2023
Year: 2023

The Synchronic Web is a highly scalable notary infrastructure that provides tamper-evident data provenance for historical web data. In this document, we describe the applicability of this infrastructure for web archiving across three envisioned stages of adoption. We codify the core mechanism enabling the value proposition: a procedure for splitting and merging cryptographic information fluidly across blockchain-backed ledgers. Finally, we present preliminary performance results that indicate the feasibility of our approach for modern web archiving scales.
Building Intelligence in the Mechanical Domain -- Harvesting the Reservoir Computing Power in Origami to Achieve Information Perception Tasks
Venue: arXiv cs.ET 2023
Year: 2023

In this paper, we experimentally examine the cognitive capability of a simple, paper-based Miura-ori -- using the physical reservoir computing framework -- to achieve different information perception tasks. The body dynamics of Miura-ori (aka. its vertices displacements), which is excited by a simple harmonic base excitation, can be exploited as the reservoir computing resource. By recording these dynamics with a high-resolution camera and image processing program and then using linear regression for training, we show that the origami reservoir has sufficient computing capacity to estimate the weight and position of a payload. It can also recognize the input frequency and magnitude patterns. Furthermore, multitasking is achievable by simultaneously applying two targeted functions to the same reservoir state matrix. Therefore, we demonstrate that Miura-ori can assess the dynamic interactions between its body and ambient environment to extract meaningful information -- an intelligent behavior in the mechanical domain. Given that Miura-ori has been widely used to construct deployable structures, lightweight materials, and compliant robots, enabling such information perception tasks can add a new dimension to the functionality of such a versatile structure.
Awareness requirement and performance management for adaptive systems: a survey
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2023
Year: 2023

Self-adaptive software can assess and modify its behavior when the assessment indicates that the program is not performing as intended or when improved functionality or performance is available. Since the mid-1960s, the subject of system adaptivity has been extensively researched, and during the last decade, many application areas and technologies involving self-adaptation have gained prominence. All of these efforts have in common the introduction of self-adaptability through software. Thus, it is essential to investigate systematic software engineering methods to create self-adaptive systems that may be used across different domains. The primary objective of this research is to summarize current advances in awareness requirements for adaptive strategies based on an examination of state-of-the-art methods described in the literature. This paper presents a review of self-adaptive systems in the context of requirement awareness and summarizes the most common methodologies applied. At first glance, it gives a review of the previous surveys and works about self-adaptive systems. Afterward, it classifies the current self-adaptive systems based on six criteria. Then, it presents and evaluates the most common self-adaptive approaches. Lastly, an evaluation among the self-adaptive models is conducted based on four concepts (requirements description, monitoring, relationship, dependency/impact, and tools).
A Linear Delay Algorithm for Enumeration of 2-Edge/Vertex-connected Induced Subgraphs
Venue: arXiv cs.DS 2023
Year: 2023

For a set system $(V,{\mathcal C}\subseteq 2^V)$, we call a subset $C\in{\mathcal C}$ a component. A nonempty subset $Y\subseteq C$ is a minimal removable set (MRS) of $C$ if $C\setminus Y\in{\mathcal C}$ and no proper nonempty subset $Z\subsetneq Y$ satisfies $C\setminus Z\in{\mathcal C}$. In this paper, we consider the problem of enumerating all components in a set system such that, for every two components $C,C'\in{\mathcal C}$ with $C'\subsetneq C$, every MRS $X$ of $C$ satisfies either $X\subseteq C'$ or $X\cap C'=\emptyset$. We provide a partition-based algorithm for this problem, which yields the first linear delay algorithms to enumerate all 2-edge-connected induced subgraphs, and to enumerate all 2-vertex-connected induced subgraphs.
Network-Assisted Full-Duplex Cell-Free mmWave Massive MIMO Systems with DAC Quantization and Fronthaul Compression
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2023
Year: 2023

In this paper, we investigate network-assisted full-duplex (NAFD) cell-free millimeter-wave (mmWave) massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems with digital-to-analog converter (DAC) quantization and fronthaul compression. We propose to maximize the weighted uplink and downlink sum rate by jointly optimizing the power allocation of both the transmitting remote antenna units (T-RAUs) and uplink users and the variances of the downlink and uplink fronthaul compression noises. To deal with this challenging problem, we further apply a successive convex approximation (SCA) method to handle the non-convex bidirectional limited-capacity fronthaul constraints. The simulation results verify the convergence of the proposed SCA-based algorithm and analyze the impact of fronthaul capacity and DAC quantization on the spectral efficiency of the NAFD cell-free mmWave massive MIMO systems. Moreover, some insightful conclusions are obtained through the comparisons of spectral efficiency, which shows that NAFD achieves better performance gains than co-time co-frequency full-duplex cloud radio access network (CCFD C-RAN) in the cases of practical limited-resolution DACs. Specifically, their performance gaps with 8-bit DAC quantization are larger than that with 1-bit DAC quantization, which attains a 5.5-fold improvement.
3D Colored Shape Reconstruction from a Single RGB Image through Diffusion
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2023
Year: 2023

We propose a novel 3d colored shape reconstruction method from a single RGB image through diffusion model. Diffusion models have shown great development potentials for high-quality 3D shape generation. However, most existing work based on diffusion models only focus on geometric shape generation, they cannot either accomplish 3D reconstruction from a single image, or produce 3D geometric shape with color information. In this work, we propose to reconstruct a 3D colored shape from a single RGB image through a novel conditional diffusion model. The reverse process of the proposed diffusion model is consisted of three modules, shape prediction module, color prediction module and NeRF-like rendering module. In shape prediction module, the reference RGB image is first encoded into a high-level shape feature and then the shape feature is utilized as a condition to predict the reverse geometric noise in diffusion model. Then the color of each 3D point updated in shape prediction module is predicted by color prediction module. Finally, a NeRF-like rendering module is designed to render the colored point cloud predicted by the former two modules to 2D image space to guide the training conditioned only on a reference image. As far as the authors know, the proposed method is the first diffusion model for 3D colored shape reconstruction from a single RGB image. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves competitive performance on colored 3D shape reconstruction, and the ablation study validates the positive role of the color prediction module in improving the reconstruction quality of 3D geometric point cloud.
Procedural generation of meta-reinforcement learning tasks
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2023
Year: 2023

Open-endedness stands to benefit from the ability to generate an infinite variety of diverse, challenging environments. One particularly interesting type of challenge is meta-learning ("learning-to-learn"), a hallmark of intelligent behavior. However, the number of meta-learning environments in the literature is limited. Here we describe a parametrized space for simple meta-reinforcement learning (meta-RL) tasks with arbitrary stimuli. The parametrization allows us to randomly generate an arbitrary number of novel simple meta-learning tasks. The parametrization is expressive enough to include many well-known meta-RL tasks, such as bandit problems, the Harlow task, T-mazes, the Daw two-step task and others. Simple extensions allow it to capture tasks based on two-dimensional topological spaces, such as full mazes or find-the-spot domains. We describe a number of randomly generated meta-RL domains of varying complexity and discuss potential issues arising from random generation.